


Gone

by Pheonyx



Series: Home [2]
Category: Fast and the Furious Series
Genre: Drinking, M/M, Tragedy, Wakes & Funerals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-19
Updated: 2012-07-19
Packaged: 2017-11-10 06:51:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/463427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pheonyx/pseuds/Pheonyx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He's gone. Just like that. How the hell are we ever going to be okay again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gone

**Author's Note:**

> I want to apologize in advance, because this story is meant to make you cry. It still makes me cry when I read it.

"NO!" Brian jumped out of bed, and on to the floor, sweating and shaking. He landed on his side and the hard wood floor jarred his ribs forcing the air from his lungs. The thin top sheet was tangled around his legs, and stuck to his skin from where he'd been sweating. His breath came in short bursts and he could feel the sting of tears gathering in his eyes, waiting to spill over his cheeks.  
"No." This time it was whispered.  
He sat up and bent one knee up to rest his forehead on, while he caught his breath. His arms wrapped around his leg and stayed there, feeling the sweat cool on his skin. His blue eyes were haunted and his face looked sunken in, as if he hadn't been eating properly. His hair was a limp mess and his rib cage was still mottled with bruises. Not that you could see them under the bandage that swathed his left side. He had a cut on the bridge of his nose and his left eyebrow had five stitches in it. He was sore all over and the pain killers that they gave him at the hospital only dulled the pain. A fact that he was harshly reminded of when he'd fallen out of bed.  
Brian glanced at the alarm clocks read numbers and frowned. It was four thirty in the morning. He eased himself up off the floor and across the hall to the bathroom, where he'd put the bottle of Tylenol threes. He flipped the switch and was momentarily blinded by the light reflecting off the white surfaces in the room. He pulled a pill from the orange bottle and washed it down with water from the sink, and then he stared. He stared at his own reflection and noted just how bad he looked. His skin was pale from being in the hospital for three days and then another three days of self imposed house arrest. He knew it was bad, but he just didn't have the will to get out of bed these days.  
That day kept playing through his mind. Invading his every waking thought, and now, his sleeping ones too. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered. Because his funeral is today, and Brian can't help but think that Mia shouldn't have to do this. That they shouldn't have to do this. He kept running that day through his head and wondering how things had gone so shitty. How he could have stopped it all from happening.

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Brian had never been more afraid for his own life than while he was tumbling in the Impreza, with Braga in the seat next to him. He couldn't remember any of the injuries as they had happened but after the car stopped and the adrenaline came down, he could feel the pain. God, he hurt all over. Every breath hurt like hell and he still had to get out of the car. He heard Braga call for Fenix to get him out, and could only sit there and try to take shallow breaths to lessen the pain in his chest. He suspected a broken rib, or worse. Though the difficulty breathing could be attributed to his position as well. He was hunched up and doubled over on himself, a shape that would have made breathing hard had he not been injured. He put a hand to the place where the pain was the worst and felt the warm stickiness of blood under his hand. He probed the wound and found that it wasn't deep. Just bad enough to be really painful, but otherwise survivable.  
He groaned and pushed on the door until it gave way. He fell out of the car in an ungraceful heap and was immediately Fenix was there, kicking the door shut and putting a knee to his face. His head bounced off the side of the car and his vision went black for a moment. He leaned against the car, trying to get the world to come back into focus. When he got his bearings and looked up Fenix had leveled a gun at him, all he could think was, 'Fucking, really?' Then he heard the rumble of a car, in the tunnel behind Fenix, and when he looked he saw that is wasn't the Charger but Dom was behind the wheel. For a brief moment, he wondered what had happened to the car, but then decided he didn't want to know. It was probably dead in the tunnel somewhere. He shook himself and brought his thoughts back to the present.  
When Brian saw the anger on Dom's face and heard the engine rev, he knew what the big man was about to do. Fenix turned and fired off a few rounds at the car, and when he stepped to get out of the way, Brian dove for his ankle. He held him in place just long enough to Dom to ram him half way through the Impreza, jerking his arms back at the last second to avoid serious injury to them as well.  
Brian sat there and tried to regulate his breathing. If his rib hadn't been broken before he dive bombed Fenix's foot, it was now. Jesus, his chest was on fire. He got up slowly, using the side of the car for leverage. Wiping the blood from his eye, he limped his way over to the drivers side of Dom's car. As he got closer he saw that Dom was slumped over the steering wheel and his breathing was shallow. He had a hand pressed to his chest and Brian could see the blood flowing from between his fingers. He felt his own blood freeze as the adrenaline hit his system again. Dom had been shot.  
"Oh, God! Dom!" He wrenched the door open and maneuvered Dom until he was laying flat on the ground. "Come on, Dom, breathe." Brian could hear the rattle in Dom's breathing that signified a punctured lung, and the red on his lips with every breath told him that it was filling with blood quickly. The bigger man was having trouble breathing, and Brian could only think to put pressure on the wound. He pressed his hand over Dom's, applying pressure, and winced when the big man groaned in pain.  
Brian turned when he heard the sirens of police vehicles, and could just barely see them crossing the desert through the tears in his eyes. He looked back at Dom's eyes and noticed they had closed. "Hey, Dom!" he said, "Stay with me. Come on, we have to get you out of here!" Brian could hear the wobble in his voice as he tried to talk around the massive lump in his throat. "We gotta get you out of here cause they're gonna take you in."  
Dom opened his eyes and smiled weakly up at him. He still had one hand pressed to the wound and used the other to cup Brian's face. He ran his thumb across Brian's bottom lip and Brian leaned into the touch, ignoring the blood that Dom had smeared on his face. "I ain't running any more." Dom's voice was low and rumbled through Brian's hand and up his arm.  
Brian used his free hand to hold the one on his face. "Come on, Dom. We still have so much to do. We'll get you patched up and then we can go where ever you want." Brian was openly crying now, tears leaving wet trails down his face. Dom started coughing and Brian saw the blood coating his lips. "No, hey! Come on!" he said, leaning in closer. "We can do this, you and me! That's what you said. You and me. We would take on the world and everything in it."  
Dom coughed again and there were hands pulling Brian away from him. He hadn't even noticed the arrival of the emergency crews. He fought against their hold to get back to Dom's side. Couldn't they understand that he couldn't just leave him lying there! He was forced into the back of an ambulance where the paramedics tried to treat his wounds. Brian wouldn't stop struggling long enough to let them. He fought with everything he had to get back to Dom.  
"No, I'm fine! Let me go! I can't leave him!" He finally broke free of the ambulance and rushed past the officers and paramedics, only to get half way there and freeze when he saw them using a defibrillator on Dom. He watched Dom's strong chest heave as they tried to restart his heart. "NO!" He shouted it. This time, when he took off, the officers were ready and managed to hold him back. He watched as the paramedic shocked Dom again, checked his pulse, and then shook his head, telling his college to call it.  
"No." Brian dropped, like a lead stone, between the officers. "Oh Jesus, no." it was all he could say. It was all he could think. His brain had shut down and all he could do was say the words over and over. "No."  
The men holding him back were now the only thing between him and the ground, his own legs refusing to hold him. Once they had recovered from the shock of his sudden weight, they hauled him back to the ambulance where he sat, near catatonic while the paramedics bound his chest and stitched his wounds.

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He didn't remember the ride to the hospital. Or much after, for that matter. All he could think about was Dom laying in the dust, dead. Brian did remember that Penning had visited. So had Stasiak, but he wasn't interested in talking to them. Penning said something about probation and Stasiak just pissed him off, talking about mindless bull shit. When he was released he went directly home and buried himself in his bed, only leaving his nest of pillows and blankets to get more pain meds or a glass of water. He wasn't eating, and while he knew it was bad, he felt nauseous every time he even thought about food.  
So here he was at five in the morning looking at the shell of what he used to be in the mirror. A sob worked it's way free of his chest and sat on the floor with his back leaning against the cold porcelain of the bath tub. He found a spot on the floor to stare at and stayed there for hours, trying to remember the good times. The times when he was undercover and everything was simpler in a way. He and Dom would stay late at the shop to work on the supra, and would end up having sex on the couch. The day that Dom showed him the Charger, and told him about his dad. The back yard barbeques and the wild house parties after races. And the races themselves. Coming home and working off the adrenaline from winning. The way he cared for every one. Dom had taken Jesse off the streets, and given him a home. He'd given Vince a place to stay when he didn't have any where else to go. He gave Leon free run of the garage, and Letty had lived at the house ever since her mother had kicked her out. He took care of them all, and now he was gone.  
Brian's expression morphed into anger. How could the world take such a good person from them. It wasn't fucking fair! He punched the floor and seethed inside. Dom was the good guy, God damn it! He didn't deserve to die at all, let alone at the hands of some piece of shit, like Fenix. He kicked the cabinet under the sink hard enough to rip the door off it's hinges, and send it skidding across the floor. He watched it clatter and wasn't nearly satisfied.  
"Brian?" he heard Mia's soft voice at the door to the bathroom. She poked her head in and he felt his anger deflate. He looked out the window and saw the light outside. How long had he been sitting here? He checked the clock again and saw that it was eight in the morning. He'd been there, remembering, for three hours.  
"Mia." He said. "Your early. Let me get ready real quick. Sorry about this." Brian gestured at the cabinet door on the ground. He stood up and walked back across the hall to his room.  
Mia survived the damage to the bathroom with a sad expression. "Don't rush." she said. "I know I came early but I didn't want to be alone." Brian nodded in understanding and she walked back out to the kitchen to start a pot of coffee.  
He pulled his nicest suit out of his closet and laid it out on his bed. He showered as quickly as possible, trying not to remember the time that he and Dom had spent here just six days ago. When he was done he grabbed the nearest towel and, pulling it to his face, could smell Dom on it. It must have been his while he was here. After tearing up some more and drying off, he sat on the bed and told himself that as much as he loved Dom and missed him, Mia was his sister and would miss him as much, if not more. He sighed and began to get ready for the worst day of his life.  
Mia sat at the bar that separated the kitchen and the living room with a cup of coffee in her hands. She had set another cup aside for Brian and he took it gratefully. They both wanted to ask if the other was okay, but neither of them were ready to talk about it yet, so they sat in silence until Ten o'clock rolled around and they both left for the funeral home.  
The funeral was awful, in Brian's mind. Made so by the people that had turned up. He saw cars in various colors and cars with illegal mods. Street racers, come to pay their respects to the legend. He also saw a lot of family cars. People from the old neighborhood had come to rubberneck and brown nose. What he saw that he wished he didn't were the unmarked police cars that had brought Penning, Stasiak, and a few other agents that he couldn't be fucked to remember. They had no business being here, especially Stasiak. It was his fault that Dom was dead in the first place. If that stupid fuck had waited like he was supposed to... Brian was more angry than sad. Angry with Stasiak, and angry with the world. He wanted to tell every one here to fuck off, and just leave him and Mia to it.  
Brian sat through the service, holding Mia's hand, wringing the program in his other, and stared at the photo of Dom from a post race party back in '01. Any thing to not have to listen to the reverend's words about ashes and dust. Any thing to tune out the murmurs of curious strangers speculating about how Dom had died. It was a picture of the whole crew. Jesse, Leon, Brian, Dom, Letty, Vince, and Mia. They'd just won twenty grand and two new cars. They were all smiling and happy. Brian smiled when he spotted Dom's hand on his waist in the photo. Dom had never been shy about telling the world what belonged to him. At first it had put Brian's teeth on edge to be publicly claimed. The fact was that, when it was Dom claiming him, it made him feel safe and happy. After Dom had kissed him in front of everyone at a race, it had just clicked. The only time they were a part was when Brian had to work for Harry. It was nice to know that someone cared about him enough to make sure he was alright all the time. Then he was reminded of how he would never feel that comforting presence again and the smile vanished from his lips. He felt angry again.  
The funeral ended, and Mia took him home. She'd asked him come back to the house with her, but he begged off, saying he needed to clear his head. He didn't think he could set foot in that house just yet. He walked into his house and grabbed his surf board from it's home on the garage wall. Hopefully the waves would help him get a grip. He was on the water for hours, letting the waves and sand take his mind away.It wasn't until almost dark that he noticed the sun setting. He decided he needed a drink and, after putting his board away and getting dressed in a light tee shirt and jeans, he drove to the bar up the road. He walked in, ordered a beer, and sat quietly, picking the label with his thumb nail. He finished the beer quickly, and the bar tender picked up his empty bottle leaving him with a new one. "Bad day?" she asked, eyeing the little bits of white and blue paper all over the bar.  
"The worst." he said, as he tipped back the brew. His voice was dull even to his own ears.  
She leaned on the bar and looked at him with curious eyes, "Wanna talk about it?"  
Brian snorted and shook his head sadly. He glanced up at her through his eyelashes, and said, "I just buried the love of my life."  
Her expression turned sad and she leaned on the bar. "I'm so sorry, Hun." She said. "My husband died a few years ago. Heart attack. How did it happen, if you don't mind me asking?"  
HIs gaze returned to his beer. "Car accident." He said, voice cracking.  
He didn't pay attention when the bar door opened, but when Stasiak planted himself on the stool next to him, he cursed to himself. Should have taken the jeep instead of the damn unmarked car. The other agent was wearing his usual suit and was tucking a pair of sunglasses into the breast pocket of his jacket. He signaled for a beer and rested his elbows on the bar, resting his chin on his folded fingers. "Shitty luck, eh, O'Connor?" he said, head cocked to the side, to get a better look at Brian.  
Brian looked up and almost smiled. He could still see a faint line, on the bridge of the agent's nose, from where he had introduced Stasiak's face to the wall. "What would you know about it?" He mumbled in response. He turned back to his beer and took a swig. He really didn't want to talk to Stasiak. He didn't want to talk to any one at all, but that hadn't stopped the mourners at the funeral and it wasn't going to stop the dumb ass next to him either.  
"Hey, we got Braga. That's good news right?" Brian tensed but didn't say anything. If he never heard that name again, it would be too soon. "You know, I was waiting for Toretto to mess up, too. I wanted to bring his ass in. You act like your fuckin' obsessed with the guy. He's just another low life, but you flipped on your handlers for him and made two deals to clear his record. What's up with that, any way?"  
Brian took a swig. "You wouldn't understand." He said, almost sad because it was the truth. Not just for Stasiak, but for most of the population as well. All anybody ever saw was the criminal, because they couldn't be bothered to get to know them. They couldn't see the way Dom cared and loved, just like everybody else. And know they never would.  
Stasiak scoffed, beer half way to his lips and said, "Got that right." He took a drink and set the beer down. "That guy was a fuckin' idiot. Why they hell did he come back into the country? She wasn't even his woman. That was your job, wasn't it O'Connor? We all know how you liked to bend over for Toretto."  
If Stasiak was going to say more, he never got it out because something in Brian snapped, and he stood up and punched Stasiak in the face, as hard as he could. The stunned man was knocked from his bar stool and hit the floor to a chorus of "Oh's" from the other bar patrons. The bar tender glared at Stasiak and a couple of guys in the back stood up. "You just don't know when to shut the fuck up to you?" Brian whispered. "It's your fault he's dead! If you had done your job and waited for my signal he wouldn't have gone to Mexico, and do it for you! Dominic Toretto was a good man. He was worth ten of you!" Brian dropped the money for his beer on the bar and left, rage boiling under his skin.  
He didn't go home. He couldn't be alone right now. This time he went back to the house in Echo Park because he knew Mia would be there and he needed someone to talk to. Someone who could relate. He rolled to a stop on the street and looked at the house. So much had happened here. He couldn't help but look at the stretch of sidewalk where Jesse had been killed. His eyes fell to his hands on the wheel, where his knuckles had gone white from his grip. Best not to dwell on it to long. Today was hard enough without remembering Jesse. He got out of the car and walked into the house. It looked the same as the last time he'd been there. He wondered back to the kitchen where he found her sitting at the table with a, mostly full, bottle of tequila and a shot glass. He walked over the the fridge and grabbed another shot glass from the top and two Corona's from the door. He sat down and poured them both a shot.  
"Didn't know you drank tequila." He said, knocking back the shot.  
Mia followed his lead. "I don't." She grimaced. "This was left over from a party. I found it in the back of the freezer. Dom used to hide the good stuff from Vince in there. " Her hand flew up to her mouth as her voice broke. "Said he used to drink too much." Brian saw the tears in her eyes and frowned.  
Brian wasn't ready to talk about Dom yet, so he took the next best option. "Do you remember when, we had that back yard cook out and I helped you with the dishes? Vince was convinced that I was trying to date you. I think that was the first time I was here for Sunday barbeques."  
Mia smiled and nodded. "He got so mad when I blew him off to go out with you. God, the look on his face when he found out about you and Dom. Oh! Remember when Jesse got caught with that girl, Lucy I think her name was, on the couch at the shop. I never thought I'd see him blush so much. Dom was so mad. He said that was your couch."  
Mia smiled and took a sip of her beer. They spent the rest of the night like that. Remembering, and waiting. It would only be a matter of time before the news got to Vince and Leon, and if Brian knew Rome at all he'd be on the next plane out of Miami as well. While it was a comfort to know that they had friends to help and get them through, they both knew that Dom was the glue that held their family of strays together.  
"Are you going back to the FBI?"  
The question caught him off guard, and Brian found that he really hadn't thought about it much. He was still under investigation with Penning and Stasiak. They wouldn't let him go back out into the field. Not after he'd flipped again, and that was if he still had a job at all after the investigation anyway. He'd be stuck at a desk all day, shuffling paper work and making phone calls. He'd be a glorified secretary, and that was Stasiak's job. He wasn't sure that he could put up with Stasiak's face everyday. Or the way that some would pat his back for bringing down Braga, and others would look down on him because of his relationship with Dom.  
"No." he finally said. "It would just be a reminder." Then he was just drunk enough to say, "I thought about reopening DT's"  
Mia nodded and got up from the table. Brian watched her, confusion marring his features as she reached in to a filling cabinet and pulled out a manila envelope with his name on it. She came back to the table and slid the envelope across to him. "Dom knew you would want to, so he had the deed to the shop signed over to you before you left for Mexico." Her voice broke and she wiped her eyes as the tears collected.  
Brian's hands shook as he pulled the envelope open. Inside was the legal documentation, saying that the shop was his to with whatever he pleased, as well as a couple of off shore bank accounts. His vision went cloudy and his hands started shaking so much that he couldn't read the print on the page. It wasn't until a drop hit the paper that he realized he was crying as well. He slid the papers back into the folder and scrubbed at his face with his hands.  
"He knew." He groaned. "He knew he wasn't coming home. He told me he wasn't, but I..." He closed his mouth and bit his lips to hold back the quiver in his voice.  
Mia reached across the table and held his hand. She gave a sad sigh and watched the second strongest man she'd ever known break down. She'd known that one day Dom wouldn't come home. She'd known it the day he'd left for Mexico. She'd known it when Letty came home without him. She'd known it when he started ripping off the trucks. She just hadn't known that Brian would be in the picture too. Not that she'd been prepared to lose her brother. That wasn't the case at all. It was just that she knew, that she would one day, and had taken steps to ease the way a bit.  
Brian didn't want to talk any more and when they finally called it a night, Mia went to her room leaving Brian to take the guest room, but on his way down the hall he passed the closed door to Dom's old room. Working against the, almost constant, lump in his throat, he pushed the door open and stepped inside. God, it still smelled like him. Engine grease , metal, and laundry soap.  
The walls were white and the floor matched the same hard wood that was in the hall way. As he looked around the room he saw the little things that Dom had chosen to surround himself with. Trinkets that Mia had given him, souvenirs from cars that he'd wrecked or lost. Pictures of the team, were on every available surface. The picture that got him the most, was the picture of him and Dom in the garage, on the couch. They were sleeping, cuddled up on the old brown leather, with beers in their hands.  
Brian remembered that day. It was the day before race wars, and they had been working all day and through most of the night to get the supra ready. It had been one am when they finally got a chance to test drive it. Brian smiled as he remembered being way to tired to do anything but collapse on that couch and snuggle into the warm comfort of Dom's chest. The next morning as they were getting ready for the race, Letty and Mia showed Dom the picture they had taken before waking them up. He'd smiled and asked them to keep it for him. Brian was amazed that he'd kept it after the truck incident. Looking back he realized that Dom wouldn't have had a chance to get rid of it. He'd had to grab a go-bag, and get across the border before the feds could catch him. He probably hadn't been back in this room since he'd left it in 2001.  
Brian smirked to himself when he remembered that day. He'd truly thought that his heart could never be broken more completely than when Dom had looked at him with that much anger. He could almost feel it, even now, years later. The disbelief and betrayal in Dom's eyes still haunted him. More so now that the man was gone.

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He knew that making that call would jeopardize everything he had built with this family, but saving Vince's life was a priority. He'd made the call and then watched as Dom, Mia, Letty and Leon drove off with out a word, as Vince was lifted off in a helicopter. All of them glaring daggers at him, but what had cut him the deepest was the look on Dom's face as he realized that the man he'd been falling head over heals for was a cop. A traitor. A Liar. Brian had known that he'd have to come clean eventually, but he'd been hoping to wait until the end of the investigation, when the Trans were locked away for the truck heists and Dom could go about running his life with out the threat of being arrested. He could never get so lucky.  
Brian had gone back to Echo Park because he didn't have any where else to go. His own house was still locked up and the tiny room at Racers Edge was just embarrassing on a good day, but mostly he wanted to talk to Dom. He wanted to see if there was any hope at all, of salvaging his relationship with Dom. It had become his reason for getting up everyday, and God, he had to try. Even if Dom shot him right in his own drive way, he had to try.  
He'd pulled up to see Dom walking down the drive with a shotgun in hand, and for five earth shattering minutes he really thought that he was going to shoot him, and he'd deserve it. Brian pulled his own gun and crouched behind the car door, his police training taking over.  
"Dom, put the gun down, now!" He yelled, fear showing in his eyes.  
Dom glared at him. "Move your car." His voice was calm, even if nothing else about him was. He opened the passenger door on the Charger as if to put the shot gun on the seat, but froze when Brian spoke next.  
"No, bullshit! Put it down now! No more running." Brian knew that had been the wrong thing to say a before he was even finished. One should never poke the bull when he was already angry and the jab about running would surely go right to Dom's ego.  
Dom's shoulders tensed and his face clouded with anger. He slammed the car door shut and turned back to face Brian, shotgun still in hand "I'm not running!" He yelled, and started walking towards Brian.  
Brian got up from the crouch and kept the gun pointed at Dom. At this point it was in his best interests to treat Dom as though he would kill him. It wasn't exactly out side the realm of possibility. "Where's Leon and Letty?" He asked. He'd hoped they were well on their way out of the country by now.  
"Their long gone." Dom had a tight lid on his anger again.  
Brian had to fight to keep the relief off his face as he stepped out from behind the car door. "Then it's over. I didn't call the police, but don't push me! Put the gun down! I swear to god..."  
"You are the cop!" Dom interrupted. He was pointing an accusatory finger at Brian, anger painting his face a bright red. His voice was straining with the desperation of his words. "Your a cop! Brian, I gotta find Jesse before they do. I'm all the kids got!" He looked scared. Brian never thought he would see Dom scared but the big man was genuinely scared for the twitchy teenager he'd adopted.  
"I'll call in the plates, PD will pick him up way before Johnny gets any where near him." Brian hadn't forgotten Jesse, he'd just become so wrapped up in Dom that his feeling for the other man tended to cloud out everything else.  
Dom gave him a look that said, 'Are you out of your God damn mind?' and cocked the shotgun. "Move your car." He said again.  
Just then Mia walked out of the house and started yelling at them. "Dom, stop it. It's over, please!" She had a hand on her hip and she still had Vince's blood on her shirt.  
Dom cocked his head in her direction. "Mia, stay out of it." To Brian he said, "Move your car." He said it in a way that suggested he wasn't going to ask nicely again.  
Just then they heard a car coming up the street. They watched as Jesse pulled up in the Jetta and got out. "Dominic, I am so sorry. I don't know what I'm doing, Dom. I am so scared right now, I don't know what's going on." The poor kid was sweating and his face was pail and drawn.  
Dom looked back at Brian, spread his arms and tossed the shot gun into the front yard. He wasn't sure if he felt relieved because Dom didn't have the gun anymore, or insulted because Dom had just let him know that he wasn't a threat. "Jess!" Dom yelled. "What were you thinking man?"  
"I don't know. I panicked, I'm sorry!" Jesse hadn't taken more than two steps when the sound of motorcycles came up the street. Johnny and Lance were racing up the street carrying an automatic weapon each. Brian took cover as soon as the shooting started, but Jesse hadn't been so lucky. Dom rushed over to the fallen boy only to realize that he was already dead. Mia rushed down the steps of the house once the shooting ended. She knelt down and cradled Jesse's head in her lap. She looked up with so much anger on her face, and in that moment, Brian truly believed that she could be vengeful.  
Dom looked over at Brian and in that moment, despite the ever rising conflict between them, they shared one thought and a common goal. Make the trans pay. Brian got back in the supra and pulled out as Dom was climbing into the Charger. He sped down the street as fast as he could and let the cop take over as he popped rounds off at the two retreating backs. He was scared for a minute when Lance got behind him and pointed the gun at his car, but then he saw a huge black Charger come out of no where and bump into the man on the bike, sending him off the road and into a ditch.  
Brian didn't slow down to see what had come of Lance. He caught up with Johnny and unloaded the rest of his clip. He saw the bike drop and skid off to the side of the road, and then ran over to make sure the bastard was really dead. After confirming that he had no pulse Brian looked up and saw Dom, in his dad's Charger. He revved the engine, and Brian got the message loud and clear. 'Come get me.'  
Brian got up off the ground, yelled for some one to call nine one one, jumped in the Supra, and tore off after Dom. He caught up with him a street over at a stop light. Brian pulled up next to him, and waited for him to speak.  
"I used to drag here back in high school. That railroad crossing is exactly a quarter mile away from here. On green, I'm going for it." Dom didn't look at him once, and it stung more than Brian thought it would.  
He watched Dom as he got ready for the race. His eyes trained on the light, and his hand on wheel, but his attention was focused on the man next to him. Brian could see the tension in Dom's shoulders and could feel the anger coming off of him in waves. When the light turned green, Dom hit the throttle so hard the front wheels came off the ground and the supercharger whined into life. He was already half a car length in the lead when the wheels touched back down again, and then he was the whole car length ahead.  
Brian caught up with him and they raced neck and neck for a few seconds, and then he saw it. The train was coming. He looked over at Dom and didn't see the anger he'd seen before. What he saw now was close to panic as smoke billowed out of the Charger. Something was wrong and the train was coming.  
Dom looked at him and in that one moment, Brian understood. Dom had once told him that he'd rather die than go back to prison, and with the Charger in this condition, he was never going to out run the cops. It was no longer a race between Brian and Dom. It was a race to beat the train, and cheat death. Brian focused his eyes on the road, fully prepared to follow Dom into whatever was next.  
Looking back on it, Brian didn't know what he thought he was going to accomplish, but in that moment, all he felt was the driving need to stay with Dom. So he upshifted and pushed the Supra to the finish line. He hit the nos and crossed the tracks with Dom, just before the train crossed the road. He looked over at Dom, and smiled. Then he saw the truck.  
In his elation at surviving the quarter mile, Dom had taken his eyes off his surroundings long enough to smile at Brian. For a moment he'd forgotten that he was angry, and flashed a genuine smile at the man he loved.'We made it!' Then he saw the panic in Brian's eyes and turned just quickly enough to see the semi truck. He didn't even have the time to marvel at the irony that he was going to be killed by a fucking truck. The Charger hit the front of the truck hard enough to launch him in the air and roll the car.  
Brian's heart dropped to the floor when he saw the Black Beast go air born. He swerved out of the way of the falling car and parked the Supra. When the Charger finally stopped, he dove from his car and sprinted to Dom.  
"Dom!" He yelled, hoping, praying that he was alright.  
When he came up on the drivers side, Dom was sitting upright. His eyes were closed, he was hand holding his shoulder, had blood running down his face and his breathing was fast and irregular. When he finally opened his eyes he glanced at Brian.  
"That's not what I had in mind." He said, after his breathing had leveled out. He climbed out of the car, with Brian's help and stood next to it, still holding his shoulder. Dislocated.  
For a moment they just stood there, awkwardly. Brian didn't know what to say, and Dom looked like he had plenty to say but didn't know where to start. They both heard the sirens coming closer, and Brian knew he wasn't going to let Dom rot in a jail cell for the rest of his life. He looked in the direction of the sirens and then back at Dom. In that moment, he signed his own fate. He handed the keys to the Supra to Dom.  
Dom just looked at him with bewilderment, and then took the keys. "You know what your doing?" He asked, eyebrow cocked. Brian knew, and his next words said nothing and everything at the same time.  
"I owe you a ten second car." To his credit, his voice was steady and his hand didn't shake when he handed over the keys.  
Dom nodded at him. There was no forgiveness, but the respect was clear in his eyes. He then walked to the car and drove away. Brian watched the car that they had built together drive away, and felt the deep raw pain that came with the knowledge that he would likely never see that man again.

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He spent that night and the next morning in Dom's bed, curled up in his blankets because, God, they still smelled like him. He didn't cry. He didn't think he could any more, so he just laid there, facing the wall, and thought about nothing. Mia knocked on the door to tell him breakfast was ready but he didn't respond. She knocked again to tell him that she'd called Vince and Rome. He still didn't move.  
It was ten at night when he heard another rap on the door. He'd fully intended to ignore it and continue not existing, but then he heard Rome's voice through the door.  
"Brian, it's me, man." His deep voice carried through the wood and suddenly Brian could feel his eyes welling up again. "Open the door, Cuz."  
Brian slowly climbed out of the bed and opened the door. He knew he looked like shit, but Rome pulled him into a hug anyway. Rome had always been like a brother to Brian, so when Brian broke down to cry on his shoulder, Rome took it like any good brother would. He slid them both to the floor and held the sobbing man to his chest.  
"He's really gone." Brian looked up and saw Vince standing on the landing, a stricken expression on his bristly face. Vince slid down the wall, till he was sitting on the floor. The scruffy man held his head in his hands and blew out a sigh. "Jesus."  
Brian thought about it, and he had to hand it to Dom. His death had managed to reduce two, grown ass, men to sniveling, lifeless, piles of goo. Mia had once described Dom as gravity, pulling people in and never letting them go, and he thought that was wrong. Dom pulled people in, but he didn't keep them, they just never wanted to leave.  
They sat there for a few, and then Rome told Brian that he needed a shower, and to brush his teeth. "Like now, brah."  
Brian laughed and walked to the bathroom to do just that. After his shower he found Rome, Vince, and Mia sitting around the table, talking and laughing. Rome had been telling them about his stint in Miami. Vince was cracking up, and Mia was smiling. Brian jumped into the story telling and after a few beer's Vince retired to a spare room and Mia went to bed as well, leaving Rome and Brian alone.  
Brian gazed at the beer in his hands. "I wish you could have met him." He said.  
Rome looked at him and smiled sadly. "Yeah?"  
"Yeah." Brian laughed. "You would have hated each other."  
Rome chuckled at that. "Think so huh?" he asked.  
Brian rolled his eyes and sat back. "Are you kidding, Man? He ran the show here, and if there is one thing you can't seem to help, it's your urge to piss off the biggest mother fucker in the room. Remember when we were eighteen, at that party in Ventura, and you punched that big mother fucker out cause he said I had a nice ass?"  
Rome scowled. "Needed to learn his place." He grumbled. "Besides, someone's gotta take care of your blond haired, blue eyed, candy ass."  
Brian smiled. It felt good to know that he had friends like Rome on his side. Rome would always have his back, even when he was pissed at him, and that took a special kind of friend. Brian thought about it and realized something. Dom would have tolerated every thing Rome could have thrown at him, because he was Brian's best friend. He must have had a far away look in his eyes because when Rome spoke up he was startled.  
"Tell me about him."  
"He was...," Brian paused, not quite sure how to describe Dominic Toretto. "He was nothing and everything. He was the kindest person, unless you hurt someone close to him. He was a protector and a shelter." Brian gestured to the house around them. "This used to be Toretto's House of Strays. There was a kid, when I met them all for the first time, named Jesse. He had ADD like a mother fucker. Twitchy, you know? Dom gave him a computer, point at a car, and I'll be damned if he wouldn't sit still till he was finished working on whatever he was doing."  
Rome nodded along through the rest of the stories. He let Brian cry and laugh, and then when he was nearly passed out on the table, helped him back to bed. Brian fell asleep with two thoughts battling for dominance in his mind. Thank God for Roman Peirce and God, I miss him.  
When they were all up and sitting around the table the next morning, Brian brought up the shop. In retrospect, he could have waited until Vince didn't have a mouth full of coffee, but he wanted to bury himself in work as soon as possible. Working till he couldn't see straight was his usual defense mechanism.  
"I thought the cops took everything, when we had to split." Vince said, once he'd recovered.  
Brian pulled the manila folder out and showed them all the paper work. "Dom still had the deed, and about a hundred grand in an off shore account. All of which he signed over to me in the event that..." He trailed off, and they all knew that he couldn't say it yet. "Rome, you still got that cash we saved to start up a shop?"  
"Yeah, but what the hell are we talkin' about here?" Rome asked, looking from one face to the next.  
Vince answered for Brian. "It was the shop Dom and I ran before the last truck job went south and we had to split." Vince didn't say it but Brian knew he still blamed him a little for everything.  
Brian stepped back into the conversation. "Dom left enough here to start a life, and I know that this is what he wanted." Brian remembered the conversation they'd had in the truck, under the overpass. "Are you in?"  
Vince nodded, and Rome said, "You know I got you."  
Brian gave them a weak smile and said, "Great. We've got some work to do."  
That same day Brian turned in his letter of resignation, and five weeks after that, DT's re-opened, much to the joy of the locals who used to get their cars serviced there. Brian kept a blown up picture of the old crew on the back wall, because those were the faces that everyone was familiar with. In his office he kept the framed picture of himself and Dom sleeping on the old couch. Underneath the sign that boasted the name of the shop, he'd added, "In memory of Dominic Toretto."  
Brian still missed Dom. They all did, but It brought about a kind of closure to see his last wishes brought to life. Brian looked around the shop and felt the pride well up in his chest. Yeah, everything was gonna be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> If your crying it means I've done my job. Thanks for taking the time to read it. The idea came to me in a dream one night and I had to get it out so I typed it up and this is what resulted. I love Dom, and I hate to see him go but I was watching the movie and I've always asked myself how it is that the bad guys are such bad shots. This time the bad guy wasn't and now I know why they always are. Thanks again.


End file.
